WASHINGTON.1 Mar 2: lie, CIA has dropped Qvef 1,000 secret informants after determining that many of them. espte-cially in Latin America, were involved in human rights abuses. The Washington Post reported today, says AFP.

Quoting unnamed sources, the post said that while the Central Intelligence Agency dropped many of the informants because they were deadwood, "a disproportionately high number of informants dropped for (human rights) abuses were employed in Latin America during the 1980s and early 1990s. but some were employed in the Middle East and Asia."

The paper said that "the magnitude of the cuts suggests the agency's clandestine service-had a broader problem with informants than the CIA has publicly acknowledged."

discharged informants ap-proacHSa one*thir# the total1 number of informants employed by the CIA.

Officials said the purge was prompted by a smaller review in 1994 of CIA informants in Latin America, which the post said "startled agency managers by turning up abundant evidence that the agency employed many foreigners implicated in human rights abuses."

That review was sparked by the CIA's discovery that an informant in El Salvador "had human rights problems." a former official told the daily.

As a result, the CIA's Latin America division in early 1995 began dropping informants, including some in Guatemala "credibly alleged to have ordered. planned, or participated"

in abuses, according to a June 1996 report.

. _ WhUe-only^boye ^percent ■oRtMe nrcrnianfs overall Wert dropped because of human rights abuses, about 50 per cent of those in Latin America were let go for that reason.

Under a policy implemented by former CIA Director John Deutch. CIA officers must now submit annual reports assessing the quality of their informants and generally are prohibited from recruiting new / sources implicated in human /rights abuses or criminal be-Lhaviour. the paper said.

The new policy has been controversial with some officers privately complaining to republican politicians that they can no longer hire disreputable informants who may nevertheless have valuable information.